Classroom lesson 路 Festival馃嚘馃嚭 Australia

NAIDOC Week

Celebrating Australia's First Peoples

What is it?

NAIDOC Week is a national celebration in Australia that honours the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples - the First Peoples of Australia. It is held every year in July. Schools, towns and communities across the country join in with art, music, dance and storytelling.

Tell me more

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have lived in Australia for at least 65,000 years. That makes them the world's oldest continuous culture. They have hundreds of different language groups and Nations across the country, each with their own stories, songs, art and ways of caring for the land.

NAIDOC Week each year has a special theme and a beautiful poster designed by an Indigenous artist. Schools mark the week with assemblies, art projects, traditional dance demonstrations and storytelling. Many schools invite local Elders to come and share knowledge with the children.

One of the most amazing parts of Aboriginal culture is the use of 'songlines'. Songlines are like singing maps. People remember the shape of a landscape - the rivers, hills, waterholes and good camping spots - by passing the song down from one generation to the next. Some songlines stretch for thousands of kilometres.

Dot painting is one of the most famous Aboriginal art styles. Painters tell stories about animals, plants, weather and family by arranging thousands of small coloured dots. Each pattern means something, and only the right artist can paint certain designs - in the same way that only the right person can tell certain family stories.

In the classroom

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Talk together

Discussion prompts

  1. 01How would you remember the shape of a landscape if you didn't have a map? Could you turn it into a song?
  2. 02What stories are passed down in your family? Who tells them?
  3. 03Why might it matter that some cultures have been around for tens of thousands of years?
Try this

Classroom activity

Each pupil paints a 'dot story' about something important to them - their home, their pet, their favourite place. Use cotton buds and paint to make the dots. Write a one-line caption explaining what the painting tells. Display them as a class wall.